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[RESOLVED] Continuous Reboot--blue screen flashes too quick

I'm trying to figure out a problem with a continuous reboot but when the XP screen comes up to start loading the OS, almost immediately after that the blue screen with the error message comes up but it's too fast to read....is there a way to pause this somehow to find out the blue screen error message?

It does this in safe mode, last know config and start windows normally modes.

Go into the BIOS and select Stay Off, Remain Off or however it's worded under Power Options | Upon Power Loss. It could be worded any number of ways. (Most BIOSes have Restart as the default setting, for some reason.)

Once that's been changed, upon your next BSOD the blue screen should remain up as long as it takes to read it. Post the error message/code and we can probably help narrow things down.

I should also add that the system is a clean build P4 system...not a HP with an AMD :-)

The owner says the computer was on, the power went out, when the computer was started back up, continuous reboot is what it did. It's possible it may have been in the middle of an XP update when the power went out.

Go to Control Panel>System>Advanced>Startup & Recovery>Settings and uncheck "Automatically restart". The next time it happens you may get a Stop error, which is much easier to troubleshoot. Post back what it says. If it still continues to reboot after that then it points to a hardware problem, and the power supply would be first on my list of suspects.

Since, there was a power issue , you should run diagnostics on the hard drive and ram to ensure they were not damaged. Check the motherboard, add-on cards and power supply for any bad caps. http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

If the hardware checks out okay, my suggestion would be to run chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console until it fixes all errors. Then afterwards, you'll probably need to repair the registry. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

I find it easier to use ubcd4win, and just copy / paste . ...don't forget to backup first.

Try hitting the F8 key just before windows starts to load.. then choose the option 'disable automatic restart' or something similar..

then u'll get to see the blue screen together with its details.

try googling the error message.

goodluck.

Thanks, that worked perfectly. I disabled the auto-restart....it's an "unmountable boot volume" error. Did a chkdsk at the XP recovery command prompt and did a "fixboot" --- it said the bootsector is corrupt...then new bootsector successfully written....

computer now boots just fine. Thanks for the help, I appreciate everyone's input. The power outage must have corrupted the bootsector somehow.